Obviously theres the whole one upmanship in this case, but seriously, do we really wanna have a bunch of anti-social 14 year olds gathering in a pub arguing over whos more endowed? Let alone have those same kids talk about which female's breasts are bigger, Gina the Mage's or Betty the Warrior's?
I think we all know this is hilarious on paper, funny for the first fifteen minutes, sick for the next 6 months and repulsive for the rest of gaming history.
Outsourcing (to a different location, not necessarily out of country) your customer service usually isn't a really a good thing to do. For the most part, its financially unmotivating and not a very convincing argument since instances such as this are rare.
Actually, I have yet to see any reports on the main page of Slashdot.org that go so far as to list a version number for any program/software.
'MTA:VC 0.2.2 fixes numerous bugs and adds a Stunt Game Mode, a custom-created multiplayer mode in which you can duel against other players to accomplish the best stunts.'
Show me a news report that was previously on the main page that had a line similar to that. Like I said before, GTA multiplayer online is nice IMO, but its nothing groundbreaking since its just a smaller server version of a MMO game. As for looking on the games.slashdot.org for updates on specific games, I don't see any reports about the new map hacks in Warcraft 3 appearing or the new update that was released for C&C:Generals Zero Hour either.
How is this Slashdot newsworthy? Wasn't this mod reported on before? I'm not saying online multiplayer GTA is bad (actually its quite interesting technologically), I'm just asking if Slashdot is going to make a habit of reporting game updates.
1. Make uber video card 2. Bundle with Half-Life 2 'coupon' to get Half-Life 1 fans 3. Give free copy of Half-Life 1 to the same fans who already have Half-Life 1, until Half-Life 2 comes out. 4. ? 5. Profit!
Actually, no. In the anime.hack the "Crimson Knights" are actually nothing but a group of players -acting- as moderators.
Actually, in the sequel to the first.hack/SIGN (Toonami airs this on Saturday nights),.hack/DUSK actually continues the storyline with the fact that the "Crimson Knights" have been disbanded because they lacked the power to moderate widespread incidents.
Without buffing up these "trustees" (ie. be able to teleport anywhere, heal anyone, disable/freeze/kill anyone) these "player moderators" would be extremely ineffective against a persistant cheater/PKer/bug abuser.
"actually speak to each other using a new voice chatter system equipped with hundreds of lines of dialogue"
Will the bots speak in English, or 'l33t-sp33k'? And I don't think hundreds of lines of dialogue really count if half of those lines is the same sentence said over and over just by different people.
The only problem with comparing MMO games with.hack is how the anime fails to explain so much or fails to bring to the audience. For example:
1. ALL the players are logged with a user name, IP address, and e-mail address. The anime fails to note the fact people can't just "erase" their identity and start over if they find out they pissed off too many people. 2. The anime presents the Crimson Knights as a force that is more powerful than most players in the game (the anime does show that some players are more powerful). Not only that, the Crimson Knights have and maintain a relationship with the system operators allowing them to do things such as check logs, close servers, set up barriers, etc. 3. The anime assumes a large majority of players do not PK, and on top of that they assume the few PKers are not numerous or powerful enough to make their presence felt. This is not the case in real world MMO games where PKers are sometimes extremely powerful (read: buy stuff on eBay) and are quite numerous. (In Asheron's Call 2, some people like to camp the exiting portal where newbies come out of the training area. Not a pretty sight if you're a newbie.)
The fines may not help in the long run (ie. cross international cases) but it does help set the stage for future lawsuits.
The many, many methods for fighting spam are usually small and unnoticed by the public for good reason. If, say, Linux was to suddenly be forced onto the public (breaking the Windows monopoly), about what percentage do you think will be able to learn Linux -effectively-? In open source, free projects such as POP-Before-SMTP, you have about 1 programmer working on the project per 10-100 people/consumers. Compared to massive software companies such as Microsoft, you have about 1 programmer per 1000-5000 people/consumers on an international level.
Actually DARE has/had (is it even still around?) a better chance at succeeding at its task since its a topic that the mass public is largely against. On the topic of warezing (movies, songs, or games), the use of Junior Achievement (JA as its called by people in the program) as the means to communicating to the public is a bad idea.
As someone who went through the JA program (two years, high school) I can tell you that the JA program reaches a -very- narrow audience. The JA program is geared (mostly) toward business types and not towards the more computer literate.
'Has any console/platform dropped in price so fast?"'
Officially? No. Unofficially, yes. Online retailers generally sell their products at a slightly lower price than their offline counterparts as an incentive to buy online rather than offline. Course, shipping and handling usually and waiting for it to arrive usually ends up wasting that little you saved.
Actually, some game a few years back (I -think- it was Hitman 2, but I know it was fairly recent) was forced to change the enemy skins because they resembled Arabs.
Do these sales include the profits gained from "refurbished" PS2s? I donno the mechanics of whats going on with those, but the fact that they're selling repaired PS2s has got to hurt their own sales from freshly made PS2.
I think this is just an early sign of Sony feeling the heat from Microsoft and Nintendo. The only way you can ignore Microsoft and Nintendo as a factor in this case would be either,
A) you're a Sony fanboy or B) you know nothing about economics.
True almost no game goes PC first then ends up being ported to a console (there are exceptions), but this may not always be the case in the future. Some games are being released on the PC before consoles now. For example:
Starcraft 64 (on the N64) Mechwarrior 2 (on the PS1) Morrowind (on the Xbox, was delayed for more bug fixing but not the PC version) And for the most notable and most recent game : Final Fantasy XI
With consoles becoming more powerful than ever (read : rivaling PCs, already destroyed arcades) having console versions of a game is almost too tempting, especially with console makers going crazy trying to out do one another. *cough*Sony&Microsoft*cough*
The success of a character revolves around depth. A story's depth and a character's depth. If the character is a wuss for no apparent reason, you're not gonna like him. If a storyline has no depth (read : the usual 'save the princess' storyline), people will probably pick the game up for the graphics, and maybe for the gameplay... in a rental period.
If someone came up to you and offered you a game between these two descriptions, which would you chose?
A) You're a spiky haired guy with little known about your past. You left your hometown to join an ultra elite fighting force and left to become a mercenary
Or...
B) You're a paperboy. You ride your bike around town delievering newspapers while dodging obsticles. You have no name, no past, and you simply fall off your bike if you get hit by a car.
Which game would you pick? (A being Final Fantasy 7, B being any of the Paperboy games)
While we're at it, lets have hundreds of rioters attack the U.S. troops while armed with AK-47s claiming that the Americans are devils. Oh but we can't have females as part of the riot though since they can't be out in public while having their face's revealed. Oh and don't forget to have land mines in the middle of the street. Ooh ooh! And we can't forget having to dodge RPGs being fired from refugee camps!
Yeah, right. 'glamour in of a Quake style shoot em'up'? Have you even PLAYED Quake? You can blow the limbs of your opponent with a ROCKET LAUNCHER. (sarcasm)Nice example, you're a real gamer.(/sarcasm)
If their technology is so far advanced, why the hell would they come here? Our space travel system isn't even at the horse and buggy stage, out energy system is causing wars, and our social system is as advanced as a bunch of 9 years old blaiming each other over who gets the last cookie (*cough*UN*cough*).
Blaiming UO for the problems of gaming being released while in beta stage is irrational. No one knew how popular MMO games would be at the time (ok there are exceptions, but those never really hit mass market) and UO was really the first one try it.
The Gameboy has been around longer than most gamers, I can't see why people are always comparing the N-Gage with the Gameboy (Advance SP). All these comparisons seem weak in light of the fact that most retailers simply shun the N-Gage. (Two posters and a binder with a couple pages of infomation is weak comparing to a wall of Gameboy displays, posters, and prop-up displays)
Um, no. Link's Adventure is a Gameboy game outside of the Legend of Zelda series. Zelda II : Adventure of Link and Link's Adventure are two different games.
The same maps for single player for years? Just look at Doom 1! People have been playing the same single player maps for multiplayer! No one cares about the 92084231 different "box" arenas Jackass Jimmy floods the net with! They want kick ass maps and they'll play it for 99% of the time if its good enough.
Counter-Strike has de_dust and de_dust2, Starcraft Big Game Hunters (which has spawned hundreds of clones), and even both versions of Halo (PC and Xbox) continue to champion Blood Gulch as the most popular map for multiplayer.
Slashdot Mirror
China's Army? Seems silly, but if the technological barriers can be overcome, a MMOFPS game (ie. Planetside only better) would be pretty sweet.
I think we all know this is hilarious on paper, funny for the first fifteen minutes, sick for the next 6 months and repulsive for the rest of gaming history.
Outsourcing (to a different location, not necessarily out of country) your customer service usually isn't a really a good thing to do. For the most part, its financially unmotivating and not a very convincing argument since instances such as this are rare.
No one ever said Mozilla was 100% safe. Its only safer than Microsoft Internet Explorer, which we all know doesn't mean much.
'MTA:VC 0.2.2 fixes numerous bugs and adds a Stunt Game Mode, a custom-created multiplayer mode in which you can duel against other players to accomplish the best stunts.'
Show me a news report that was previously on the main page that had a line similar to that. Like I said before, GTA multiplayer online is nice IMO, but its nothing groundbreaking since its just a smaller server version of a MMO game. As for looking on the games.slashdot.org for updates on specific games, I don't see any reports about the new map hacks in Warcraft 3 appearing or the new update that was released for C&C:Generals Zero Hour either.
How is this Slashdot newsworthy? Wasn't this mod reported on before? I'm not saying online multiplayer GTA is bad (actually its quite interesting technologically), I'm just asking if Slashdot is going to make a habit of reporting game updates.
1. Make uber video card
2. Bundle with Half-Life 2 'coupon' to get Half-Life 1 fans
3. Give free copy of Half-Life 1 to the same fans who already have Half-Life 1, until Half-Life 2 comes out.
4. ?
5. Profit!
Actually, in the sequel to the first .hack/SIGN (Toonami airs this on Saturday nights), .hack/DUSK actually continues the storyline with the fact that the "Crimson Knights" have been disbanded because they lacked the power to moderate widespread incidents.
Without buffing up these "trustees" (ie. be able to teleport anywhere, heal anyone, disable/freeze/kill anyone) these "player moderators" would be extremely ineffective against a persistant cheater/PKer/bug abuser.
Will the bots speak in English, or 'l33t-sp33k'? And I don't think hundreds of lines of dialogue really count if half of those lines is the same sentence said over and over just by different people.
1. ALL the players are logged with a user name, IP address, and e-mail address. The anime fails to note the fact people can't just "erase" their identity and start over if they find out they pissed off too many people.
2. The anime presents the Crimson Knights as a force that is more powerful than most players in the game (the anime does show that some players are more powerful). Not only that, the Crimson Knights have and maintain a relationship with the system operators allowing them to do things such as check logs, close servers, set up barriers, etc.
3. The anime assumes a large majority of players do not PK, and on top of that they assume the few PKers are not numerous or powerful enough to make their presence felt. This is not the case in real world MMO games where PKers are sometimes extremely powerful (read: buy stuff on eBay) and are quite numerous. (In Asheron's Call 2, some people like to camp the exiting portal where newbies come out of the training area. Not a pretty sight if you're a newbie.)
The many, many methods for fighting spam are usually small and unnoticed by the public for good reason. If, say, Linux was to suddenly be forced onto the public (breaking the Windows monopoly), about what percentage do you think will be able to learn Linux -effectively-? In open source, free projects such as POP-Before-SMTP, you have about 1 programmer working on the project per 10-100 people/consumers. Compared to massive software companies such as Microsoft, you have about 1 programmer per 1000-5000 people/consumers on an international level.
As someone who went through the JA program (two years, high school) I can tell you that the JA program reaches a -very- narrow audience. The JA program is geared (mostly) toward business types and not towards the more computer literate.
Officially? No. Unofficially, yes. Online retailers generally sell their products at a slightly lower price than their offline counterparts as an incentive to buy online rather than offline. Course, shipping and handling usually and waiting for it to arrive usually ends up wasting that little you saved.
Actually, some game a few years back (I -think- it was Hitman 2, but I know it was fairly recent) was forced to change the enemy skins because they resembled Arabs.
I think this is just an early sign of Sony feeling the heat from Microsoft and Nintendo. The only way you can ignore Microsoft and Nintendo as a factor in this case would be either,
A) you're a Sony fanboy or
B) you know nothing about economics.
Starcraft 64 (on the N64)
Mechwarrior 2 (on the PS1)
Morrowind (on the Xbox, was delayed for more bug fixing but not the PC version)
And for the most notable and most recent game : Final Fantasy XI
With consoles becoming more powerful than ever (read : rivaling PCs, already destroyed arcades) having console versions of a game is almost too tempting, especially with console makers going crazy trying to out do one another. *cough*Sony&Microsoft*cough*
If someone came up to you and offered you a game between these two descriptions, which would you chose?
A) You're a spiky haired guy with little known about your past. You left your hometown to join an ultra elite fighting force and left to become a mercenary
Or...
B) You're a paperboy. You ride your bike around town delievering newspapers while dodging obsticles. You have no name, no past, and you simply fall off your bike if you get hit by a car.
Which game would you pick? (A being Final Fantasy 7, B being any of the Paperboy games)
Yeah, right. 'glamour in of a Quake style shoot em'up'? Have you even PLAYED Quake? You can blow the limbs of your opponent with a ROCKET LAUNCHER. (sarcasm)Nice example, you're a real gamer.(/sarcasm)
If their technology is so far advanced, why the hell would they come here? Our space travel system isn't even at the horse and buggy stage, out energy system is causing wars, and our social system is as advanced as a bunch of 9 years old blaiming each other over who gets the last cookie (*cough*UN*cough*).
Other than the recent Knights of the Old Republic, what other -recent- Star Wars game has been released?
Blaiming UO for the problems of gaming being released while in beta stage is irrational. No one knew how popular MMO games would be at the time (ok there are exceptions, but those never really hit mass market) and UO was really the first one try it.
The Gameboy has been around longer than most gamers, I can't see why people are always comparing the N-Gage with the Gameboy (Advance SP). All these comparisons seem weak in light of the fact that most retailers simply shun the N-Gage. (Two posters and a binder with a couple pages of infomation is weak comparing to a wall of Gameboy displays, posters, and prop-up displays)
Um, no. Link's Adventure is a Gameboy game outside of the Legend of Zelda series. Zelda II : Adventure of Link and Link's Adventure are two different games.
Counter-Strike has de_dust and de_dust2, Starcraft Big Game Hunters (which has spawned hundreds of clones), and even both versions of Halo (PC and Xbox) continue to champion Blood Gulch as the most popular map for multiplayer.
Why don't you throw in Link's Adventure while you're at it?